The Princess and the Scholar
by FaceChanger
Summary: Once upon a time there was a princess. Once upon a time there was a scholar. Meriora has always been strange. L has always been weird. It's natural they should be friends. But sometimes friendship turns to love and love to betrayal. LxOC. Not AU
1. Chapter 1

**The Princess and the Scholar**

_By fairy hands their knell is rung; By forms unseen their dirge is sung.  
~William Collins_

**Prologue**

**October 2004**

A young woman stumbled through the streets of Tokyo. The rain poured down, soaking her and causing her to shiver in her thin clothes.

"Please, Sir!" she cried out in English to a man passing by under an umbrella.

"No English!" he said back.

"Shit," she cursed. She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, praying that the ink hadn't run. It had. She could still make out the address, though.

Glancing around herself she saw a shiny new building. Checking with the paper in her hand she confirmed that this was indeed the building she was looking for. She coughed violently and grabbed a lamppost for support.

She stumbled across the street and over to the door. She pressed a button on the door and coughed as a man's voice said, "This is private property Miss. I need to ask you to leave."

"Tell L," she coughed, "It's Meriora." She collapsed in front of the door, worn out by her unknown trials.

Watari, seeing the woman collapse, bypassed the security network and rushed outside to bring her in. He picked her up, surprised to find she weighed very little, and carried her into the elevator, using his pass code to get through security.

He pressed the button for a floor where there was an unoccupied room and brought the girl into the room. Uncomfortable with the thought of changing her out of her wet clothes he laid her on the bed and went to get Misa.

Misa came up to the girl's room confused as to what Watari wanted her to do, until he explained the situation. Shooing him out of the room she changed the mysterious girl into warm, dry clothes, and tucked her into bed, before skipping off to tell Light.

Watari, meanwhile, went to the floor that L was on and found the detective sitting in a chair and staring dejectedly at a computer screen. Watari tapped L on the shoulder.

"Yes Watari?" he asked.

"There is a girl that collapsed at the front door. She had told me to tell you that it was Meriora. I brought her in."

"Meriora?" L asked astonished, "Where is she? I must speak with her at once!"

"Fourteenth floor."

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**I know I know! Im awful! I have two other ongoing stories! Bleh. Whatever. *teenager moment* heh... -_- Next chapter will be longer and the title will become clear sorta. So... REVIEW!**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Princess and The Scholar**

**Chapter One: Old Friends**

"_True friends stab you in the front." ~Oscar Wilde_

**October 1995**

"You'll never catch me ya loser! You know I'm faster! Deal with it!" A girl ran through the halls of the orphanage. She rounded a corner and ducked into the first room she came across, shutting the door quickly behind her and listening as the other kids raced past. She looked up to a see a strange boy staring at her curiously.

"Hello L," she said calmly.  
"What'd you do this time Meriora?"

"Told them the truths they didn't want to hear. Like I would say to you, you're smart but you have the social skills of spinach: no one but me likes you. You're too full of yourself thinking you can do anything in the world but there will come someone who can beat you and then you will have no idea how to handle it."

"You haven't managed to upset me yet. What makes you think you can do it now?" L asked her calmly.

"I can hope," the fourteen year old girl answered. She brushed a strand of red hair from her face. L studied her for a moment. She had bright red hair that was constantly falling in her face and a freckled face that she hated to wear make up on claiming it gave her breakouts. Her eyes were a plain bluish gray.

"Not a very good thing to hope for, is it?" L answered. Honestly, the genius, two years her senior, was the only one in the orphanage that wasn't offended by anything she said or did.

"The idiots out there just can't take the truth. They think they know me and everyone around them so well, but they can't know anyone if they don't know themselves." Meriora replied disdainfully. She uncapped a marker and began to write on L's bedroom wall as usual. So far she had a pretty good story going about a scholar who had a bit of a strange resemblance to L and a rude and sarcastic damsel who seemed to act just like her.

L watched her silently. "What is your story about?"

Meriora glanced at him, pushing hair out of her face again, and then back at the wall. "Once upon a time, there was a princess who hated the world. People were too full of themselves and she felt nothing but contempt for them." She read, "So the princess went off to search for a dragon and when she found the dragon she told it to be her guardian and to come and defend her from all other people, so that she could perhaps be happy for once. The dragon agreed, because dragons also naturally hold the world in contempt. So together they found an old tower and the princess locked herself in a room and the dragon curled around the foot of the tower. The dragon and the princess weren't really friends. The dragon had an excuse to guard a damsel, a secret dream of its, and the princess was safe from the world.

"Naturally when the story of the princess reached the ears of royalty, all the princes from all over wished to rescue the princess, because tales of her beauty had been greatly exaggerated. They would ride off to the tower and confront the dragon who, laughing would say to them, 'Why should I let you through? Do you think the princess wants to be rescued?'

"Infallibly the princes would answer 'Of course. Who would want to be trapped in a tower for all time when the world is such a wonderful place?'

"And the dragon would answer, 'Then go, and if you come down with the princess I wish you the best. But I warn you, if you come down alone I shall surely eat you.'

"So the princes went up the tower stairs, amazed at their good fortune and forgetting the dragons last words. They would inevitably come to the topmost room before they found the princess staring out her window to the world below. They all assumed this showed the princess's longing for freedom. 'Ah! My beautiful princess' they cried falling to one knee, 'I have come to rescue you from the clutches of the vile creature that lays below.'

"The Princess would reply, 'Rescue? Why should I need to be rescued? This is my sanctuary, my place of peace. I am not happy here; it is true, but only because I have exhausted my supply of books. And the dragon that lies below is not a vile creature as it is the only one who understands that the world is a vile place filled with self righteous vile scum like yourself!' And the prince would be taken aback and stalk out of the tower into the jaws of the waiting dragon.

"Now there had been one boy at the castle that the princess was friends with. He had been a scholar held in the highest respect, despite his young age. He heard of this princess in a tower and smiled to himself, knowing it to be his friend. He also heard from one prince that had escaped the dragon that the princess was in need of new books. So one night, he packed a bag of books and set off to find the princess.

When he reached the tower he found himself face to face with the dragon. The dragon's laugh grated on his ears as he stopped before it. 'Are you here to rescue the princess? What makes you think she wants to be rescued?' It didn't help that the scholar was a taller man, but odd looking. His eyes had dark circles beneath them and he stood stooped over. 'I just want to talk to her. She will most likely decide to stay in her tower, and this is fine. I am just an old friend.'

"The dragon eyed the man skeptically, and then granted him access to the tower with her usual words. 'If you come down with the princess I wish you the best. But I warn you, if you come down alone I shall surely eat you.' Nodding gravely the scholar began up the tower stairs. He reached the highest room in the tower and spoke the princess's name. She turned around and was overwhelmed with joy upon seeing her long lost friend." Meriora stopped. "And I don't know what comes next. Does the princess agree to leave? Do they live together in the tower? Or does the dragon eat the scholar? Or does the dragon eat them both?"

L put his thumb in his mouth as usual. "Why does the princess hate the world?" he asked. Of course, he was a natural skeptic.

"I said; people are too full of themselves."

"That's not an answer. Why does she believe the world is so awful? That there is no one who can make her happy?"

"Because, because, when she was a young girl her father- the king murdered her mother and she never forgave him." Meriora answered hesitantly.

L nodded thoughtfully. "And the scholar? Why doesn't she hate the scholar?"

"Because the scholar is the only one who doesn't think she is an awful person for telling people the truth. And because the scholar doesn't try to change her. He accepts that that she hates the world and doesn't believe she can't be happy in solitude. But the truth is she isn't. She hates the solitude. Which is why she is friends with the scholar. He breaks the solitude. Does that make sense?"

L nodded. "Yes. It does."

"I'm going to go to the kitchen to get some food," Meriora said, standing up, "I heard they have some strawberry cheesecake." L hopped down from his chair and the two friends walked off to the kitchens.

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**Ahem, who, me? bad at updating? never. next chapter is a work in progress. Updates will hopefully be on Mondays, but its not a bad idea that one of you readers *still pretending to have some* its a good idea for someone to remind me on say sunday...**


	3. Chapter 3

**I have a very good excuse for not updating. I was counting on someone to write an addition to this chapter but they havent gotten back to me yet. I was going to wait until they replied BUT... So ithe scene she was going to help me with will just be left out. Because I am not writing it. Plus it would change the rating of the story so... =.=

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**The Princess and the Scholar**

**Chapter 2: Loving You**

_If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I._

_~Michel de Montaigne_

**June 1997**

"'Es war einmal eine Prinzessin, die die Welt gehasst.' Warum ist das so langweilig? Ich hasse Deutsch!" Translation; "Once there was a princess who hated the world. Why is this so boring? I hate German!" Meaning: Meriora had German homework and was annoyed.

"Yet you seem to be fluent in it…" L commented dryly while finishing yet another case.

Meriora unleashed her entire German curse word vocabulary at her friend.

"Love you too Meriora. I'm surprised you haven't cursed off the teacher yet." The detective replied. Meriora fell silent, eyeing her friend cautiously.

"L?"

"Yes Meriora?"

"Do you- um, what do you want to do?" Stupid question. He wanted to solve more cases of course. But she didn't want to ask her original question.

"I would like to finish my stack of cases before tomorrow. But, Meriora does not want to do this?" L looked at her quizzically.

"I, I would like to go out to the apple tree. I want to play chess with you."

"You always lose though. Then you get mad and throw the board at my head. I don't really appreciate having a chessboard thrown at my head. Believe it or not it actually hurts."

"But if I don't play you I can't get better!"

"Meriora…" He said her name tiredly.

"L…" she mimicked his tone perfectly.

"Alright! I'll go! Just don't throw the board at my head!"

"Yay!" Meriora jumped up off where she had been sitting on the floor and grabbed L's wrist, dragging him out of the door.

The apple tree had been where she first met L. She had been eight he had been ten. He had hardly paid attention to her, but she had taken to following him around. Eventually he and she had talked and discovered it wasn't a horrible thing to not be alone in the world. She remembered their first conversation on the way out to the apple tree.

* * *

"Would you stop following me around?" L had had even less tact back then. He tended to just deadpan out what he wanted. There wasn't even a hint of anger in his voice.

"No." She had been even more obnoxious.

"What is your name?"

"No."

"Your name is No?"

"No."

"Is no the only word you know?" Perhaps, he reasoned she was one of the children who didn't understand English.

"No."

He tried again in a different language. She just looked at him quizzically and replied the same as before.

"No."

A different language. Now she understood what he was doing.

"No." She began to grin. Now L understood what she was doing. He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a lollipop.

"Would you like this lollipop?" She reached for it eagerly but he held it up above her head. "You have to speak if you want it."

Of course she wasn't going to let him win that easily. She tackled him and began to tickle him. He fell over, not expecting the sudden attack. She grabbed for the lollipop but he had already began a counter attack and had twisted her arm behind her back. She howled in pain and began to curse him out with words that no eight year old should know. Twisting her arm until she was on the ground, L proceeded to sit on the small of her back and suck on the lollipop. And thus, their friendship was born.

* * *

The game of chess they were playing now took about a half hour. Meriora lost. As usual. But this was L she was playing. She threw the queen at him muttering something about a know it all genius person.

"Meriora promised not to throw anything at me."

"I promised not to throw the chessboard. I didn't. I threw a chess piece at you."

Meriora sat down on a swing that was tied to a branch of the tree. She sat for a while watching L work on one of his cases. Usually, she was trying to figure him out. Find an explanation for his actions. Today, she was trying to figure herself out. She knew there was something different about her feelings for L recently. She saw him and her heart beat faster. He caused her world to suddenly become clearer and as irritating as he was sometimes, she found she was never happy unless she was with him.

So the question was, was this love? What was this fire in the pit of her stomach? Did she love him? Oh, who was she fooling? Of course she loved him. How could she not? But he didn't love her back; of that she was fairly sure. She didn't even think him capable of love. Meriora's heart ached a bit at the thought. Perhaps that princess from her story so long ago had it right. If you lock yourself away from the world, then it couldn't hurt you. And you would never feel pain.

L spoke then. "I'm leaving soon. I have to take a case somewhere and its best if I am there."

Meriora looked at him sharply. "What? No! You can't leave!"

He looked at her sadly. "I have too. I need to see the evidence first hand, or at least the crime scenes."

"Take me with you then! L!"

L shook his head. "I don't think I can. I'm sorry Meriora. I don't want to leave."

There was a reason that L was her only friend, and a reason she had fallen in love with him. He had never given her cause to fly into such a fury as she was capable of. Even now she didn't. She stood abruptly from her swing and faced L who was still crouched on the ground.

She tried really to keep from crying, she really did. She bit her lip and stared up at the sky. She knew exactly how she looked when she cried and so she turned on her heel and ran as the tears pooled in her eyes. She pounded past the rest of Wammy's and into her room. She slammed the door behind her and screamed into her pillow.

How could he? How could he leave? She needed him! She sobbed hard into her pillow not caring who heard. A knock came on her door and she knew it would be L. "Go away!" she screamed. The door opened and his hunched figure slipped in. "Your leaving aren't you? Then why won't you leave me alone! I hate you! I hate you so-" her words were cut off as he wrapped his long arms around her. She had not been expecting the hug. He usually avoided all physical contact when possible.

"I'm so sorry, Meriora. I'm so sorry." She had never heard him apologize before and it caught her off guard. So she hugged him back and held on to him for dear life as she cried her heart out.

When she could talk again, she asked a question she should have asked before. "Why?" her voice was small, like a child's. "Why don't you want me to come with you? L, don't you- don't you love me?"

L froze at the question and Meriora pulled away for a minute, She put her hand on his face, tenderly. She could see him studying her and knew he was thinking over his answer.

She was no longer the small girl who had first taken to following him around the orphanage trying to annoy him to the best of her ability. She was a beautiful young woman. Her hair was still fiery red but it was not half as frazzled as it had been in the past. She was beautiful in every aspect of the word. But there is more to love than beauty. She was clever and she was sometimes slow to see what was in front of her face. She could tell a lie that would fool anyone but she was more often painfully honest. She never cared what anyone thought, but she hated when someone said something bad about L. She was a bundle of contradictions and she was a puzzle. So did he love her? She made him feel alive. He could solve cases better if he was laughing at some stupid joke she had made. And when he looked at her he thought he would melt. So yes, he did love her. But he didn't answer her question in words. He caught her hand and pressed his lips against hers. She froze for a moment before kissing him back. Did he love her? What a stupid question. He had loved her for as long as he knew her. She was his Meriora. She was his life. He would never be whole without her.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Princess and the Scholar**

**Chapter Three: Abandoned**

"_Love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes... just be an illusion." ~Javan_

**June 1997**

It had been a long time since Meriora had dreamed. This time she had a nightmare. L was getting out of her bed and standing in the doorway. He was turning to look at her and walking back one more time and kissing her forehead. "L…" She murmured.

"I'm so sorry, Marianne," he apologized softly.

"How'd you know my name?" her words were slurred with sleep. He didn't answer, he just walked out.

* * *

Meriora woke up to sunlight streaming in through the blinds. She rolled over and pulled the sheet up over her breasts as she remembered the night before. The feel of cool fingers on her bare skin. Hot kisses trailing down her neck. Her clothes were tossed carelessly across the room. She remembered soft words whispered in her ear as the fell together onto the bed.

Smiling drowsily she turned her head to look at L, but found only a pillow with a note taped to it. She Bolted upright holding the sheet against her, and ripped the note off the pillow. She unfolded it and recognized instantly the childish handwriting that came from his awkward grip of the pencil.

_Dear Marianne,_

_Never doubt that I love you. I want you to know that. And I know you must have thought that after last night I would stay. But I am sorry that I cannot. I have to leave. My life with you has been wonderful. I will miss you so much. I look at you now, as I write this, and you look so beautiful in the moonlight. There will never be a day, understand, that I will not think of you. There will not be a time that you are far from my thoughts. I've never been good at putting my thoughts into words, and you know this. Know also that I love you more than I have ever loved anyone. You are the only person who has made me feel the way I do. I am so sorry Meriora, Marianne. My beautiful Marianne. I love you. So much._

_L Lawliet_

She read the note three times over, before jumping out of bed and pulling on a green silk robe. Tying it tightly around her waist, she ran out of her room barefoot.

Her feet thudded against the wooden floors as she rounded a corner and flew down stairs. Her hair was a tangled mess and she knew she must look awful, but she didn't care. She slammed the door of Roger's office open and saw the man sitting quietly at his desk. "Roger!" He looked up as she screamed his name. He did not particularly like Meriora on the best of days, and she seemed more enraged than usual today. "Roger, where is L?" That was not the question he had expected. But he told her anyway.

"He and Mr. Wammy left this morning. Did you need to speak with him?"

She shook her head slowly, her eyes wide. She sat down in a chair and pulled her robe closer to herself. She bit her lip and looked up at the ceiling, then at the floor, then at Roger, and he saw her eyes were glistening. She looked down at her lap and began to cry silently. She took deep shuddering breaths as she sobbed. Roger was at a loss of what to do.

How could he? How could L have done that to her? How could he have left her? He had said… He had said he loved her. 'Thank you, Roger," she choked out, and stood silently. She walked out of his office much more calmly than she had walked in.

* * *

She closed the door to her room before breaking down. She leaned against the door and slid down it onto the floor where she hugged herself and cried.

He had abandoned her. He had left her. After, after he made love to her, he left her. She didn't hate him. She loved him still. But she was alone, because she had left her. She had only been so alone once before.

She had been six when her mother died. Her father had been abusive and killed her mother one day in a fit of rage. Social Services had come and taken her away. She had been tested and when her IQ had scored at a hundred eighty, she had been sent to Wammy's. For two years, she had had no one. She had been lonely and isolated from the rest of the orphanage, before she had met L. She had forgotten how to be lonely at this point. She had no idea what to do.

Finally, after a good hour, she stood up and wiped her eyes. She went into her bathroom and turned the shower water on, twisting the knob to as hot as it would go. She threw her robe into a crumpled heap on the floor and stepped into the water. She stood still for a few minutes, feeling the scalding water run over her skin. Then she grabbed her cinnamon scented shampoo and rubbed it fiercely into her scalp. She scrubbed everything off of her, as if she could wash away his lingering presence. Stepping out of her shower she toweled her hair off and then wrapped it around herself. Calmly, she got dressed in an old sweatshirt and ripped jeans. She picked up the clothes on the floor and dumped them into the hamper. She ripped the sheets off the bed and threw them in there too. Anyone watching would not have known that she was struggling not to cry. She left the bed completely unmade and left her room, closing the door softly behind her.

* * *

It was about nine o'clock and she pushed the big doors open to go out on the lawn. She hoped to find some comfort at the tree, after all, she had only good memories at the tree. But when she got there, there were two younger kids under the tree. She knew their faces, having seen them around once or twice. There was a blonde boy and a red haired one with goggles. The red haired one was playing some video game console or other and the blonde was eating a bar of chocolate ferociously. He looked up as she approached.

"Who are you?" he asked her rudely.

"Get out from under my tree."

"Your tree?"

"My tree. I have been coming here with L since I was little. It is my tree. Get your eight year old ass away."

Under any other circumstances, the blonde would have glared at the girl for insulting him. However, she knew L? "With L? As in the L? What's he like? Can I meet him? Please?"

"Don't idolize him too much. He isn't as smart as he thinks he is. Now get out." The blonde stood and the red haired kid did as well. As they walked away, the red haired one turned back once to see Meriora standing, a silhouette against the bright sky, her curly red hair being blown around in the wind.

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**Yay! Mello and Matt have a cameo appearance! They may reappear later. Actually they probably will. So I felt i should post a definite update schedule. **

**PATS: Sundays**

**Ashes to Ashes: Saturdays**

**MOAGG: after PATS ends...**

**Nanakamoda: eventually...**

**So, now review. And let me know, i may start one of those interview things with the characters at the end of a chapter if i get enough questions. It depends... REVIEW NOW! Please.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Four: Rage**

_Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.  
~William Congreve_

**August 1997**

Meriora haunted the halls like a ghost. She said nothing to anyone. She didn't eat unless food was put right in front of her. And her eyes seemed dead. No one had liked her before. She had always been rude and strange and cruel. And so she was alone. They felt a vague sort of pity, of course. But it was nothing they couldn't shrug off. And so they did. And she was alone.

She erased all reminders in her room of him. She burned any pictures. She threw away any essays she had written pertaining to him. Because she had done that. Written essays about him. He was all she knew.

But there was one thing she could not have gotten rid of, had she even wanted. It took her three days to even gather the courage to go into the room. In this time she had lost ten pounds. There was no one to make sure she ate. So she didn't.

She pushed the door open slowly. The room hadn't changed, of course. She hadn't expected it too. But somehow, seeing it exactly the same as she had left it was disturbing. She flipped the switch and the light came on. There was no dust. No cobwebs. Every book on the shelf was still there. And the wall. It was exactly the same. She had added to it over the years. The scholar had stayed. He had stayed with the princess and they had lived happily ever after. Screw that. She pulled an old sharpie out of a drawer and uncapped it fiercely. The tip was squished down, but she didn't really care. She crossed out the words angrily. And she rewrote the ending. She muttered the words to herself as she wrote them out.

"The Princess tried to convince the scholar to stay. She tried to tell him not to flee. She was happy there. And she wanted him to stay with her forever. She loved him after all. So he stayed with her, but only for one night. He told her he loved her. And then he left her. He left her to her loneliness as everyone else she had ever known had done as well. And she watched from her window as he spoke with the dragon. And then the dragon let him pass. She did not know what he said. She didn't know what he did. But he left her standing in the window alone again. Tears streamed down her face. He turned back one last time as he left and cried up to her 'Goodbye! Goodbye Marianne! I love you, but I cannot stay! Goodbye!' It had been so long since she had heard her name. It had been so long since she had heard someone sound happy. And she tried to hate him for it. But she couldn't. Because she loved him."

Meriora stood back and looked at the wall, proud of herself. And suddenly, she was no longer sad. She was angry though. More angry than she had ever been before. She did not hate him. No, she would never hate him. But she wanted revenge.

* * *

The blonde kid from the tree, Mello, had been waiting to see Meriora for three days. He had seen her too. But she had been like a ghost. He would see her, and then she would disappear. But on the third day after L left, Meriora vanished. There was a rumor that spread like wild fire throughout the orphanage that she had killed herself or that she had gone insane. But Mello knew what had really happened. After all, he had been the last person to see her before she left.

Meriora had come down the stairs quietly, wearing a black sweatshirt and old jeans. She pushed open the huge oak doors and breathed in the cold night air. She had walked out the doors for a few paces and Mello and Matt had hidden in the shadows watching. She adjusted the shoulder strap on her bag.

As she left she had breathed a few words to herself. "And so the princess left the tower. Not for any new epiphany on how she loved the world, but simple because she had decided to find the scholar. To find him, and destroy him as he had destroyed her."

Mello didn't know what the words meant. She took a deep breath and stared straight ahead. Then confidently she walked forward along the gravel driveway. She left without looking back; not knowing that within a few years Mello would be following exactly in her footsteps.

* * *

Meriora stood in the city streets of London. Even at the late hour cars rushed back and forth and people made rackets as they came out of bars.

She was half regretting leaving the orphanage. She didn't know how to live in the real world. But she didn't want to go back at this point. It would be too much like surrender.

She had a considerable amount of money from the trust fund all Wammy students had. The moment she swiped her card it would be activated. So naturally she had found the most expensive hotel in London and was preparing to check in. A moment before she was about to walk in though, her detective instincts kicked in and she went to the nearest store with an ATM.

Swiping her card, she withdrew £1,000 from her account. She still had plenty of money left.

She found a bank about five blocks from the hotel and opened an account under a fake name. She immediately deposited the £1,000 and got a debit card. She left suddenly untraceable. Over the next few days she planned to withdraw the rest of the contents from her trust fund and put them into her account at the bank. It wouldn't be good if L or Wammy were able to trace her by her spending.

Returning to her hotel she checked in and rented a suite. She dumped her bag and fell down onto the bed. Within moments, she was asleep.


End file.
